Even more than January 1st, September feels like the beginning of the new year for many of us. Summer breaks and vacations are over, and the school year begins along with the church program year. Our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox tradition celebrate the beginning of their church year on September 1st, when they hear again the story of God creating the world and everything in it. For our Jewish neighbors, the Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah, also usually falls in September. Along with cooler temperatures and shorter days, the fall season seems to bring fresh energy and new beginnings.
September 1st is also the beginning of the Season of Creation, when Christians from different denominations and all around the world join together in an ecumenical celebration of God’s good gift of creation and a re-commitment to caring for our common home. This year’s theme is Peace with Creation, and we are all invited to work for God’s shalom for all the world. In Hebrew the word shalom means far more than the absence of war or conflict. Shalom means the restoration of all broken relationships, including our relationship with God, ourselves, the human family, and the rest of Creation. True peace comes when we live in right relationship with God, each other, and the world God loves.
The Season of Creation extends through October 4th, which is also the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the environment. In addition to Blessing the Animals, Sunday, October 5th is also World Communion Sunday, when Christians all around the world celebrate their unity in Christ as they gather around the Lord’s Table and are fed with the bread and cup, the love and grace of God.
Over the next month, we are invited to celebrate the beauty of the world around us and to recommit ourselves to the work of peacemaking, not just with our human neighbors, but with all creation so that all may enjoy God’s abundant life.
Here in the Hudson Valley, we live in a particularly beautiful corner of God’s creation. As we enjoy the beauty of the changing seasons and this harvest time, may we also become more mindful of the many opportunities we have to make peace with creation – to use the Earth’s resources wisely and carefully and to share the Earth’s gifts so that everyone and everything has what they need not only to survive, but to thrive as God intends.
~Tami & Chip